


Gaea and Swallowtail

by SilverWhiteRaven



Category: Original Work
Genre: Drabble, One Shot, Supervillain, Tumblr Prompt, enemies to family, superhero
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-17
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:34:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22767811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverWhiteRaven/pseuds/SilverWhiteRaven
Summary: A one-shot story inspired by writing-prompt-s on Tumblr! Also posted on Tumblr."You’re the most feared supervillian in the area and not too long ago, a new superhero showed up claiming to stop you. Intrigued by your nemesis, you do a bit of research about them and find two things. One, they’re a kid. Two, they’re in the foster system. Explain in detail on how you adopted your nemesis into your family."
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Gaea and Swallowtail

The young 15 year old superhero’s name was Swallowtail, a name that’s feathered symbol often meant hope, and her chosen logo was a butterfly, of the same name, a thing of change. Her powers included impenetrable skin and a dangerous ability to warp what she touches into new forms. Outside of her mask, Swallowtail’s name was Marrabelle Detroit. 

It wasn't hard to find her civilian identity, not many people had such distinctive cotton-candy blue hair and bubblegum pink irises before or in the first weeks following Swallowtail’s first appearances, though that didn't last long after mimicry of her image became a morale-boosting trend. Marrabelle did a fairly good job of hiding the connection between her identities, using contact lenses in civilian form, masks and uniform styles that made her look different, older, in hero form, even going far enough to build and maintain outward personas to go with each look and respective situation.

What truly gave her away were her official citizen registries and foster care records, a hard trail to follow but with a clear picture at the end of the puzzle.

With enough digging and widespread searching, Marrabelle was revealed to have been born in Michigan as Marra Trinity, with mahogany brown hair and matching eyes with no known mutation at the time. Marra was presumed dead at age 4 after her family was caught in a gas explosion while travelling through California, her unmarkable skin having still been an unknown factor. Her matter-warping ability had yet to develop. In the same city a day after her supposed death, a distressed little girl with hair bright blue growing out from the roots was found and taken to local child services where too many questions all at once created a mistaken name of Marrabelle Detroit. 

A single old social media post revealed Marrabelle was a nickname for the young girl, one that must have been used often enough that she thought it her full name. 

After failed attempts to find either her parents or her existing records, Marrabelle Detroit was registered and added into the system. 

Marrabelle was moved from home to home often. Her grief and stress making her harder to bond with, harder to be wanted. Her hair was unnerving to many hosts, a few tried to rationalize her hair as Marrabelle being a thief of their money to be used to get hair dyes, or even thinking she took the dyes directly. They also didn't like how she seemed to misbehave by bending toys or utensils out of shape, only getting worse as she got older, things even going missing like a child hiding what they broke. Her claims over not doing the damages on purpose never heard. The more uncaring of places would make claims she was malicious. The worst of them saw fit to punish her before sending her away.

She was 7 when she noticed her eyes getting lighter. No one else did, it was too gradual, not enough time between guardians for any to notice. She bought brown contacts at age 10 between homes. Again, no one noticed, though the change could be seen through comparing pictures if anyone bothered.

Marrabelle was 13 when she first created the persona of Swallowtail. It came shortly after a transfer between foster homes that had followed in the wake of a grand-scale theft of government funding that went towards the child service systems she was in. She had other reasons, of course, but she recognized the theft as an added factor to the hardships she had to endure. Coupling the new motivation with an ever growing need to learn to control her forming powers with practice, and her street fighting she started picking up at 11, a new superhero emerged. 

The to-be Swallowtail didn't live in the city of her future nemesis until she was 9. 

The supervillain Gaea went public in New Mexico, at age 22, when Marrabelle was 6 and still in California. 

Gaea was a shape-shifter possessing elemental magic strong enough to decimate cities. She targeted high society and high rank people, those with money, assets, power. No one knew her motives. No one could prove there was a pattern in her MO. Gaea was wild, dangerous, unpredictable, and terrifying. 

But she did have a pattern to her targets, she knew what she wanted.

Gaea’s civilian name was Neris Crescent. She was a popular writer of young adult sci-fi and fantasy novels. She wrote free blog posts with her writing advice. She spoke openly about mental health and queer experience. She was publicly an avid donator to public community causes and charities. 

She was a supervillain because that’s what she needed, wanted, the public to see. 

She was a supervillain because those she scared and preyed upon most were among those with the loudest and most heard voices in the city, the state, the continent and on to the world. They labeled her with the title they thought her to be, the one that threatened them the most, the one she put into their heads, the one the masses were most likely to accept.

Gaea was feared, watched for, and that was what allowed her to work at her best. 

They simply looked to hard with fear-fueled tunnel vision. 

Gaea’s shape-shifting allowed her access to all sorts of places, all sorts of people. She could be what and whoever she needed, working in both the shadows and the spotlight. She saved her true face for her time spent as Neris, and always made sure that when she was face to face with one of her targets, knowing she had already won what she came for, the face she let them see was ever-changing, never staying still long enough to memorize a passing feature. 

It was what scared them the most. 

There was no hope of a tax-evading millionaire recognizing her unless she wanted recognizing. There was no corrupt government tracking her by her movements or her voice. Even her DNA refused to stay put long enough to be mapped by inhumane scientists. 

The fact that she could bring the buildings around them down upon their heads at any moment wasn’t even a necessary knowledge to keep them in line, but it was a welcome added bonus on her side.

When Swallowtail came out of the woodwork, she had been loud, noticed. She told her home city that she would bring down Gaea for taking the money that helped the people, citing one of the supervillain’s government thefts that drained funds from a child service agency first and foremost, followed by more thefts and threats to people connected to a multitude of government and privately funded services for the people.

Gaea was intrigued. So few people tried to be heroes against her. Most often, she simply evaded and avoided, though some she had to knock down several pegs, too, as they were not as heroic as they wanted people to think. 

She let them keep playing their games, however, she was a player, too, after all, and there was no game without opponents. And if she had no heroes, super or not, to go against her, where would she possibly draw better inspiration for her writing from if not personal encounters?

For the first few months, Gaea and Swallowtail had few encounters, though all were in public places when they happened, in only places Gaea would show herself on purpose, taunting the new superhero, using herself like bait on a string. 

Physical fights occasionally occurred, though they never lasted long. Swallowtail couldn't be wounded, though it was clear she still felt the stings and aches. Gaea avoided damaging the city, rather making messes that made the fights seem worse than they had been. 

And Gaea didn’t like to be touched by Swallowtail, not one bit.

The girl clearly had a ways to go in controlling whatever power she held, as the suppervillain could feel whatever it was effecting her own body, her shape-shifting reacting wildly and uncontrollably even for the briefest of touches. Like it was trying to undo something it wasn’t trying to have done.

Sometimes it caused her shivers when she saw objects that had been transformed into something different and new at the superhero’s touch, avoiding imagining what would happen if her shape-shifting didn’t self-activate at her touch. 

Closer to a year after Swallowtail emerged, Gaea became much more careful in her encounters with the hero. Not because of dangers to herself or others, no, the girl had gotten better in her fighting and damage avoidance, even lessening the intensity and occurrences in which her powers caused the supervillain’s own to go haywire.

No, it was because Swallowtail was gaining real traction in causing holes in Gaea’s plans. 

The young girl didn’t know that the supervillain she so desperately fought was working towards a goal any hero or true person of the people would be proud and ecstatic to succeed in. She didn’t know that the villain that was causing the shut down of her original child services had used the stolen money to anonymously donate to a far superior child care service that weeded out toxic homes yet didn’t receive the government funding it required most. The very service Marrabelle was scheduled to transferred to.

She also didn’t know that the many disguised trips the villain took often lead to gathered information of corruption, that Gaea was playing a long-game to expose and put away the real filth of the world, and to free those unjustly punished. 

Swallowtail didn’t know that there was someone good working behind the mask of one of the most powerful and feared villains known.

So, Gaea starts to misdirect the young hero more and more, making her focus on the right things. 

Their banter and back and forth verbal and physical battles began to include snide side comments about all the inhumane and corrupt organizations and people Gaea knew of, sneaking in a new reference with every encounter, almost acting as if she wasn’t intentionally letting slip who her supposed allies in villainy were, there were simply too many for her to keep to herself properly. 

Her tactic had worked like a charm, and now the superhero, who had earned the listening ears of the people, was unknowingly helping Gaea.

As their dynamic began to evolve this way, their first year as nemesis came to a close, and a second year opened.

With it, new curiosities bloomed in Gaea.

Neris began seeing it in her writing, ideas of secret identities revealed and learning more and more. 

So Gaea began diving into research.

It took a third of their second year of encounters for the villain to fully uncover the truth about the hero who opposed her and learn the backstory that once shrouded her in mystery. There were a lot of government buildings and stolen access keys and guessed passwords to get it all together.

It took three months for Eris Crescent to register her home for fostering and make a specific request to home one Marrabelle Detroit under a suggestion of a hope for future adoption. It took another month before a wary Marrabelle arrived on the doorstep of a world-known writer. 

During that first half of the second year, Gaea had become more secretive, more in the shadows than in the light. The villain-hero encounters became brief and far between. Gaea became less inclined to show her signature, ever-morphing face to her targets, refraining from connecting her deeds to her supervillain identity as often, reaching for her goals without leaving her mark. Gaea appeared to be lessening her activity, retreating perhaps, the people wondered if maybe Swallowtail was succeeding in beating back the fearsome foe of the city. 

As the two entered the second half of their second year, their encounters as Supervillain and superhero only continued to decline, though Swallowtail had become much more active. 

Neris was focusing on learning to parent a teen. Marrabelle was testing the waters in her latest home, unknowing to the hidden identity of her new caretaker, and surprised to find more freedoms than she was used to, more support and care than her previous homes with her previous care agency. 

It took two and a half months after taking the girl in before Neris admitted to knowing about Marrabelle’s Swallowtail activities. 

Another half month before the writer could convince the young hero that she was earnest with her offers to enroll her into proper fighting and defense classes, as well as find her someone to help her master her matter-warping ability. 

One more month and Neris also told her she was able to track down her parents’ family. Marrabelle cried the hardest she ever had since she was 4.

A month and a half later, Neris Crescent offered to either arrange for her to meet with and potentially be taken in by her biological family, or maybe be adopted. Marrabelle swore she would get better at not crying.

On the eve of the second year anniversary of the first meeting between the superhero Swallowtail and the supervillain Gaea, the two met again, and Gaea told Swallowtail her civilian identity, followed by giving her every note and file she had of every mission she ran as Gaea, every ounce of data of who and where and why.

The villain told the hero to do with the knowledge as she wished.

And Gaea told her civilian identity’s ward that she was sorry she didn’t tell her sooner, she should have given her the option of an out before she even fostered the girl, maybe even as far back as their first meeting.

They parted in silence, much on their minds.

On the morning of the second anniversary of the beginning of their superpowered rivalry, Marrabelle approached Neris in their shared home.

That evening, after a quiet dinner and right before a large helping of desserts for each of them, Neris Crescent officially became a mother, and Marrabelle Trinity Detroit-Crescent found her home, and a new mentor for Swallowtail to boot.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to those that read, and even more thanks to those who comment and kudo~! I hope all of you have amazing days!!


End file.
